Practical Web Design Tips to Save You Time and Money

The most successful web designers will all tell you one thing: keep it simple. Forget the fancy effects and Flash-based menus and systems that take forever to load and don’t work on mobile devices. The key to running a successful website is to use the right tools, keep it basic and don’t overload your humble site with too much useless junk.

You want your users to focus on the content, not the fact that you have a sparkling trail following the mouse or a viewer count that spins every time your user loads your website. Get rid of the fancy widgets that make your website look like it hasn’t been updated since the 1990s and take control. Here are some tips on how to market your products and services on your website with ease.

Picking the Right Host

Creating a beautiful website is a time-consuming job if you’re not keen on designing. To remedy that, you can always pick a host such as Squarespace or WordPress. These two services have hundreds of different templates that you can pick and edit yourself. They’ll give you a good base to start your website and all you need to worry about is putting your content out there.

Pricing is also a concern. You don’t want to spend too much money for a web host if it’s not going to make you money. There’s no reason to pay a web designer a tonne of money just to edit or change your website when you can do it yourself for cheap using hosting services, and there’s no need to pay for more storage space if your website is mainly text and pictures. Some web hosts offer easy integration for online storefronts too. You’ll have to pay a little extra, but it means you can easily sell your products on the internet and the only thing you need to worry about is printing shipping labels and packaging items to send.

You also want to consider customer service. Look up reviews for the host that you plan to use and make sure they offer a 24/7 customer support service. If your website goes down, then you need to contact your host to get it back up again or ask them what issues there are. A web host that constantly fails will make it hard for your business to thrive, so ensure that uptime and customer service are top-notch before committing.

Designing a Logo

Logo design is expensive if you are hiring a freelancer with a lot of experience. You can make huge savings by using programs such as Photoshop or GIMP to create your own logos and designs—all it takes is a bit of reading and dedication. For example, these photoshop text effects tutorials are a great introduction to stylized logos that are easy to create and look great. You’ll be able to create some excellent art in a short amount of time and you can use it as a temporary logo until you upgrade your business.

However, it might also be worth hiring a junior freelance designer that’s looking to expand their portfolio. Many freelancers that are just starting out are willing to work for cheaper rates or even for free. However, make sure that you speak to them directly and tell them what you want. It’s a gamble and you might get an expertly crafted piece of work for free, or you might just end up with something unusable due to their inexperience.

How to Keep it Simple

Whether you’re creating a freelancing portfolio or you want to set up a web store to sell handcrafted memorabilia, you don’t want to overload your customers and visitors with an abundance of useless information they don’t care about. Even if you offer a very technical service, you don’t want to drown people in your technical jargon because chances are, they know they need your services, but they don’t know a thing about how it works and nor do they care. It’s also a good idea to keep your website simple enough to run smoothly and cleanly on mobile devices.

Let’s say you want to focus on building custom computers for gaming enthusiasts. There’s no point listing information such as maximum temperatures or fan speeds right off the bat. They’re gamers that may or may not have an idea about the exact specs or why they’re important. Show them useful information such as how fast smoothly their games will run or the maximum graphics settings the computer is capable of. If they want to know more, simply add a “technical specifications” link that shows all the details.